Is UIUC’s undergrad CS program comparable to that of a top tier college?

In which ways in UIUC’s CS program better or worse than that of a top tier college like MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley or CMU? Is the quality of education, rigor of courses and research opportunities at UIUC comparable to those available there?

Hi, current CS major here. I love the CS curriculum here, and while I can't compare to those other universities I can say the quality of education and rigor are great. I can't really comment on CS research since I dont personally know anyone doing it but it definitely exists and does some really cool stuff.

I looked at the CS curricula, lecture slides and projects/programming excercises for CMU, Stanford, MIT, and Berkeley and compared them with UIUC CS curricula. They are very comparable in rigor and quality. If you compare UIUC CS curricula, lecture slides, programming exercises with even Georgia Tech you will see them less rigorous. So, in my assessment UIUC CS curricula is equivalent to CMU, Berkeley and Stanford in rigor and quality. Probably MIT curricula is slightly more rigorous.

As far as research opportunities goes, UIUC offers plenty of undergraduate research opportunities and they exist even for freshmen (such as the PURE program).

So, a top student from UIUC would be comparable to a top student from any of the four top colleges you mentioned and will have as much opportunities for learning, researches, and, internships.